If you want to re install Windows 10 after obtaining the free upgrade you will find that you loose the free copy of the Windows 10 DVD player you were given for upgrading from Windows 8 Professional With Media Center or Windows 7 Home Premium / Ultimate.

However fear not, this simple guide will show you how to re-install the Windows 10 DVD player for free!

First download the Windows 10 DVD player for your version of Windows 10, either 32bit or 64bit:

The above downloads link directly to the Windows 10 DVD player on Windows Update, so you can be assured the file is safe.

One downloaded, use WinRAR to extract the cab file, this can be done by right clicking on either the windows10.0-kb3081704-x64.msi or windows10.0-kb3081704-x86.msi depending on which file you downloaded, then select extract here:

Next you want to make two folders in the root of your C:\ drive called temp and temp2.

Copy either the windows10.0-kb3081704-x64.msi or windows10.0-kb3081704-x86.msi you extracted in to the temp folder you just created.

Now you need to open the Command Prompt, this can be done by searching for “Command Prompt” in the start menu.

Once the command prompt has loaded type the following depending on the edition of Windows you have.

The above will copy and paste on to one line in PowerShell, however if you have having trouble you can copy and paste from this text file: Windows 10 DVD Player PowerShell

Press enter and the Windows 10 DVD Player will be installed:

You should now see the Windows 10 DVD player under recent apps in the start menu, if not you should be able to find it by searching for “Windows DVD Player”.

The Windows 10 DVD player can be used as normal on your clean install of Windows 10, just as if you had upgraded from Windows 7 or 8:

I hope if you have clean installed Windows 10 and wanted to re-install the Windows DVD Player app you found this tutorial useful.

I would suggest you also checkout VLC, it’s a media player which will play DVD’s and just about any audio / video file you can think of, without requiring any additional codes to be installed. Best of all VLC is free, and is an Open Source application.

Matt Hill is in his mid 20′s and has a passion for technology. Matt studied Computer and Network Administration at University and currently works as an IT Administrator for a company based in his home town.

Hi:
I’ve followed the instructions, unzipped the zipped file (for Windows 64 bit) into c:\temp and ran Power Shell as administrator. I copied the text at the command prompt but am getting an error message. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Matt. I successfully downloaded and installed. Also installed VLC Media Player. I did this (installation of Microsoft DVD Player) because I am getting an error message about the update for the DVD Player from Microsoft. “Update for Windows 10 for x64-based Systems (KB3081704) – Error 0x80070643. I’ll let Microsoft sort out this error message thing.

Thanks so much Matt. I did as you said and copied the text to the power shell (as administrator) command line. There are no line breaks or carriage returns.
The screenshot of the command line with error message is here:

Hey Matt… Thanks for this. I followed every step and got no error messages. However, the DVD Player doesn’t appear under apps or programs. I had it originally as a Windows Update, but it got corrupted. I thought if I uninstalled it, I would get it again as a Windows Update – I was wrong. Any ideas? Thanks so much!!

I’m in the same situation. Windows DVD Player doesn’t appear under apps/programs although I got no error messages. I also had Windows DVD player uninstalled because I got an error message when I played a DVD.

For some reason if Windows DVD Player was previously installed in the system and then uninstalled, it won’t show up in the app list if you try to reinstall the same version of the app again. I managed to solve it by doing the following:

1. Found out the app folder name by listing WindowsApps folder contents using Command Prompt:
dir “C:\Program Files\WindowsApps”
The folder name that worked for me contained the “neutral_~” in its name.
2. Uninstalled the app using PowerShell (run as administrator):
remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -package your_app_folder_name_here -online
3. Ran a search through Windows Registry for “WindowsDVDPlayer and deleted every entry that was found (backing them up just in case).
4. Rebooted just in case.
5. Followed the instructions again to install the app and it worked.

Crap, No go here. I got it working then, I had to uninstall it as I had Codec issues and I wanted to confirm it was not that, so I right clicked on it and uninstalled. Now I tried to re-install and it seems to go fine but, it never shows up on the start menu or search does not find it.

The installation work just fine, so the Windows DVD Player is listed in the App’s, but i still have the same error message in the Windows Updates. If you have any other idea how to fix this darn Windows Update, i would be happy. Thanks

Flawless instructions. Thank you! Microsoft websites are useless. It’s great to find helpful websites like yours that provide excellent instructions, when Microsoft can’t even provide help for installing their updates when they fail.

Just a heads up that a new version of Windows DVD Player is available through Windows Update as KB3106246. The instructions above work for it as well (the paths must be changed, of course), but the previous app must be uninstalled first.

There seems to be a bug in TH2 with uninstalling apps through Powershell that hasn’t been fixed yet. Try my instructions a few comments above on how to get the DVD Player back. Tell me if it worked for you.

Thanks 🙂 worked for me. I think the reason that I didnt get Windows DVD player with my upgrade was that I reserved my upgrade from windows 7 home professional. was NOT about to pay $15 for software that I already own! Thanks again

If your DVD dries doesn’t show up in explorer then chances are it’s either not connected to your motherboard or if it is connected its not getting any power. Even when I have had DVD drives fail they have shown up in explorer and just not read any discs.

I qualified for the free upgrade from win7 pro to win10 pro. Did an update install and all worked fine.. didn’t look for the dvd player app at that time. Well.. then did a clean win10 install, followed your tutorial and at the point of extraction from the temp directory, I got a message “must be eligible for dvd player upgrade”. Any ideas what’s up? My win10 is the fall update ver1511.

I hate windows 10! I have fought for days trying to get my DVD to work. Every direction to a T! And can’t get windows 7 back-even tried before my 30 days and wouldn’t let me. I think Apple is next for me.

Mine installs per your instructions, but then I get Error : 0x8004027d (The text associated with this error code could not be found) – and judging by Google this has hit a few others too.
Best I can see is a possible codec issue but other than that, no clue!

The Errors you get in powershell (unspecific Error etc.) pleace try to look at all apps scroll down to “W” if the DVD Player is already installed (will not displayed in recent installed) if not just start the msi file in temp (not temp2) directly, it worked with a friends pc

I am the ‘Administer’ with my PC which is different in Windows PowerShell. You have to specify by right clicking icon then select, “Run as Administer”! After numerous attempts and error messages, I accidentally right click and saw the selection! Then it work and was able to download and install. Thank you Matt

My problem is that the DVD player is not recognized in the device manager. It shows up as a usb device that is not recognized and the driver can not be found. I followed your steps and got the media player installed but do you know how I can get my external DVD drive recognized? I can’t find drivers for this anywhere. I would think it is a generic driver. (for Samsung or an Amazon Basic. I have both.)

Tried 5 times and fail each time, nothing shows in temp two after fail. I had it when the 10 upgrade was made and it disappeared and clearly, I can not have it back. I will punish MS if they rake one more thing away, I’ll go Linux!

Got the error message, “Add-AppxProvisionedPackage : Unspecified error
At line:1 char:1” ; however I neglected to open PowerShell as an administrator. Closed PowerShell and reopened as administrator, repasted the ADD text and hit Enter. It worked!

after a disappointing session with Microsoft about this issue- I found this web page – worked like a charm. the only thing you left out was to press “enter” after command prompt, before power shell entry. Thanks again

Got the same error as Bryn and others above. Followed instructions to the letter. Not a word wrap issue. Author clearly needs to do a little more research, as the instructions aren’t universally applicable.

“One downloaded, use WinRAR to extract the cab file, this can be done by right clicking on either the windows10.0-kb3081704-x64.msi or windows10.0-kb3081704-x86.msi depending on which file you downloaded, then select extract here:……..”

What I actually did: downloaded the .cab file from windowsupdate.com, then extracted it to the same folder using 7-zip (“warnings there are some data after the payload data”) resulting in your windows10.0-kb3081704-x86.msi ready to install via the next steps.

I uninstalled Windows DVD Player because whenever I tried to play a DVD movie I got the “unsupported video or invalid file path” error message.

I tried to re-install it using your instructions but kept getting the “Add-AppxProvisionedPackage : Unspecified error” message as mentioned by the others. Perhaps it’s because I’m running the Windows !0 Creator version? I have no idea.

Finally, I was able to install it by changing your powershell command to:
add-appxpackage c:\temp2\InstallDVDAppxPackage\cd0c0ffe0ee94518833e70b1e931fcff.appxbundle

Sigh, I’m back to square one with the Windows DVD Player still giving me the “unsupported video or invalid file path” error message.

I upgraded from Win7 Home Premium 32-bit to WIn10 Home 32-bit, but wanted to go 64-bit. So I reinstalled Win10 64-bit from scratch but then lost Windows DVD Player.

THANKS FOR YOUR GUIDE. Much appreciated.

Why not just use VLC? VLC somehow uses much much more CPU resources playing DVDs than Windows’ native players do. This was the case with Win7, and is also the case with Win10. I’ve tried enabling hardware acceleration etc, but VLC still ‘sucks’. Check it out yourself!

it says in command prompt The installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that it is a valid windows installer package

I tried to re-install it using your instructions but kept getting the “Add-AppxProvisionedPackage : Unspecified error” message as mentioned by the others. I have tried all variations in the comments to no avail.

I followed your very clear instructions and got as far as pasting the info you gave into power shell but the writing came up orange and it would not accept the instruction. I tried 3 times, ,also copying and pasting from your text link, but the program has not installed.

Thank you very much! Worked like a charm on my Surface Pro 2 with the FCU. Though, it seems it’s not the latest version and isn’t linked to the Windows Store…oh well, so long as it plays DVDs/BluRAY from my external Bluray drive.

Thank you for these instructions. The instructions worked flawlessly for me. The decoder works in NextPVR and Kodi too. The Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder setting in NextPVR now works on Win10 64-bit.

So I ran into the same issue a few posters had with trying to use powershell to register the application. It was due to me removing the built in windows application in years prior using remove-appx-package:

Add-AppxProvisionedPackage : Unspecified error
At line:1 char:1

I checked to make sure I still had it provisioned:
PS C:\> Get-ProvisionedAppxPackage -Online | where { $_.DisplayName -match ‘DVD’}

Using that InstallLocation I registered it for my user account in an elevated powershell prompt:
Add-AppxPackage -Register “C:
\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsDVDPlayer_3.6.13291.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode